Vacant Gas Station Irritates Residents

November 21, 1994|By Bob Goldsborough.

Glen Ellyn — Most of the complaints Trustee Joe Wark says he gets from citizens concern the long-vacant former Clark service station in downtown Glen Ellyn.

To eliminate the blight, the Glen Ellyn Village Board recently tried to buy the parcel at the southwest corner of Prospect and Pennsylvania Avenues, offering about $78,000 to its owner, local restaurateur Peter Letsos, if he would cleanse the site of environmental hazards. Village officials had hoped to raze the remaining structures and convert the property into space for users of the Glen Ellyn Clinic and future patrons of the new Glen Ellyn Public Library.

But Letsos refused to sell. When he approached the board last week on a different matter, plans to expand his Glen Oak Restaurant, Wark scolded him for the condition of the Clark station property.

"I want to underscore the importance of moving forward," Wark said of the property, which Letsos said he has owned for 10 years. The trustee suggested calling a meeting where Letsos could respond to some of the village's concerns, which include the condition of the boarded-up building.

Letsos, who has considered building two retail stores and parking on the property, said he hasn't calculated the cost of a cleanup.

"I'd like to get it done in 1995," he said.

In 1989, Letsos was convicted of illegally dumping 3,000 gallons of stored gasoline from the shuttered service station into the village sewer system. He received 2 years' probation and 200 hours of community service and was fined $7,500. The attorney general's office said the dumping risked an explosion and endangered the lives of residents.